Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus gave away gifts and candy canes Tuesday during a Christmas party at the Craig Fire Station. The Clauses and their reindeer have a very busy day today — Christmas Eve — with Christmas Day right around the corner. Despite their busy schedule, Mr. and Mrs. Claus were able to find time to sit down and talk with the Daily Press.

MC: They think Santa calls the shots, and Santa will get them everything they need. And it’s really hard.

Santa Claus: The biggest thing to me is, if you’re naughty, you’re not helping around the house, you’re doing bad in school. If you’re doing things that you know you’re not supposed to be doing, you know in your head what’s right or wrong.

I can tell by their face, and I tell them there’s still time to straighten it out. One boy gave me that little mischievous grin and said, ‘Trust me, Santa,’ and I said, ‘I think I’ll check my list.’

MC: Even now, if someone asks me who I am, first of all, I’m a wife. Next, I’m a mother and a grandmother and a great-grandmother. After that, I’m Mrs. Claus.

MC: I told (Santa) when we got married there would never be a dull moment in our lives. And there’s never been a dull moment.

SC: She keeps me in red and white.

MC: My role in it is to take children that really are afraid of Santa Claus. They will come to Mrs. Claus, because my role is like a mother to young children. Being Mrs. Claus, I attend a lot of things with him to say, ‘There is a Mrs. Claus.’

SC: I try to spend time with them and talk with them. And they’re all willing to wait because they know they’ll have a chance for me to listen. I make them feel like they are a person.

MC: It’s very satisfying really to the children when they sit down in his lap. They think, ‘OK, Mom and Dad probably know what I want for Christmas.’ A lot of these kids are smarter than we really think they are.

SC: My gratification is to see them happy. You have to stay ahead of them. They ask, ‘Where are the reindeer?’ I have to tell them that I can’t bring them down here this time of year because it’s still hunting season. What if someone couldn’t tell the difference between an elk and a reindeer? If they shoot a reindeer, what are we going to do? And the kids are like, ‘Yeah, we don’t want that to happen.’

MC: We love Craig. I like the community because it is a close-knit community. If someone is in trouble, this community comes out for them. It works for that person. It’s just one big family.

SC: Craig reminds me of my little town I grew up in. Where everybody waves with their whole hand and not one finger.

SC: This is North Pole South. We call it the Santa Ranch out there.

MC: A lot of these families, the father is one place, the mother is another and the kids are strung between. They just want mommy and daddy together for that day.

MC: It’s hard to answer the children when they ask, ‘Why can’t daddy come and spend the day with us?’ We don’t know the circumstances, so I always say, ‘We can always hope, and wish for the most.’

SC: Hopefully, they realize that just because they asked for it doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to get it. Sometimes it’s an impossible wish. Santa works two jobs to keep the elves going.

MC: Somebody was asking me how do we answer questions when the kids wonder what happened to mommy, what happened to daddy. Well, we just have to make these children believe that there is something higher than us that make those decisions. You have to just hope that the parents are going to think about that child.

SC: I had a 5-year-old ask me for a computer. And I’m sitting there thinking, so if they’re asking for that now, what are they going to ask for when they’re 15 or 16. So, you can’t totally give them everything like that, you kind of got to let them have a little bit of disappointment over that so that it will build some appreciation for when they do get it.

SC: They’re also spoiled with television ads. I could fill two sleds with nothing but electronics. You better be way off the chart on my good list because those are all really good presents.

MC: It’s really weird. I think something’s turning. With the economy turning. I think these kids are beginning to understand the money’s not there anymore. They know the economy is bad. They know they can only get so much anymore and that’s it.

MC: Just to see them sitting there and nodding their heads… even the children who don’t speak English, it’s the same thing. It’s like they really understand, ‘Santa,’ and ‘cookies.’

SC: If it says Santa, it will be in my box. I had one from Aspen last year that said, ‘To Santa,’ and had some street and North Pole. No stamp with their parents premade return address thing stuck on the envelope, and it ended up in my mailbox and I said, ‘Dang, they must really believe.’

SC: I don’t know how to describe it. As long as I still see the smiles on their faces, I’ll keep doing it.

MC: If you ever watch the children when he walks up to them, it’s amazing to me, even the older ones. It’s just like…we believe.

MC: It’s a lot of fun to see kids believe in this day and age.

MC: You can’t live without dreaming. I don’t ever want to stop dreaming. I’m 70 years old and I still dream. When you stop dreaming, you don’t have anything. I don’t care how old you get. Dream, because that makes you live.

SC: You see that look in their eyes, they have that vision. Visions of sugarplums or visions of toys. You can see that dream in their eyes, and let them have that for as long as they can.

MC: Just believe, go on dreaming and enjoy life. It’s too short. You’ve got to believe in Santa Claus.

SC: Not to give up believing, not in just Santa, but in life. Let the dream hold on as long as it can.